bone graft

Listened to a talk on the weekend by a mother of child with a cleft. She spoke of her apprehension before the bone graft surgery, which I think all of us cleft mother's have. She said that it wasn't as bad as they had been expecting. I sure hope that is the case for our little Em! I have dreaded that since I first heard about it. Also the fact that her other 3 surgeries were when she was a baby so I didn't have to explain them to her. It is a good thing she is a brave little girl. Lets be honest, her surgery is still at least five years away, but every so often it comes back to haunt you.

An oral health specialist spoke too. He said children with a cleft are up to 3 and a 1/2 times more likely to have holes in their teeth. Explaining you should brush all of your children's teeth twice a day until they are ten years old and floss them once a day. I am generally happy if I brush their teeth once a day. And I hate flossing, but I will try harder.

Now another thing he spoke of is diet and how much sugar affects the rate of cavities in teeth, now my question is, El is on a high fat, high calorie diet. Is this likely to increase her chances of holes in her teeth. What about the extra salt that she consumes will that increase the liklihood? I have no answers, perhaps I should have asked but didn't think it was appropriate to be asking about CF in a cleft meeting.

J asked yesterday if El's CF would ever go away, and I said no she would have it forever. He said, until she dies? and I said yes. A really difficult moment for me having to verbalise those very difficult facts. He hardly reacted at all. Kind of surprising to me.

Please keep Conner's family in your prayers as they prepare for his funeral.